Help with drums?

K

knuckle.joe1

New Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2010
hey, i've recently been progressing with my drum beats and ive started to get a little better, but the problem is i cant seem to find any good one shot sample packs.

I've tried layering, EQ'ing, using multiple effects but nothing seems to sound that good.

I'm not a fan of using loops to be honest.

Any help on where i could find some good packs?
 
Not that I'm an expert by any means mate... But I was like yourself - my drums sounded pretty flat even with fx and adding eq. It's all about laying multiple drum samples.

Some goos samples available on these sites:
Wav Alchemy
Drum Werks
Gold Bayby
Loop Masters

I know there a ton more, but I found these pretty decent quality.
 
Layer your drum samples (at least 2 different sounding, soft and punchy etc...), EQ them properly, use Compression

Having good initial drum samples to start with is a definite bonus.

I would like to add the same rules also apply for snares
 
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@ Krispy: yeah i have been trying to layer and get a feel for what goes well together, thanks man.

@ Groelle: wow thanks, ill be sure to check that library out.
 
Best tip i learnt was to Bus out all the kicks and snares to an Aux, literally change the output to the Bus not send, then wack a decent limiter/compressor to that track which then effectively blends them all together and gives you full control of the overall output. Make sure you don't bus out the hats and cymbals to this one, make a separate Aux for these other wise it'll sound shit!

---------- Post added at 13:53 ---------- Previous post was at 13:50 ----------

Oh and always start with a good quality sample first as Kripsy said don't use a combination of shit samples cos its a waste of time. Imo you should be just to use 1 main kick and 1 main snare sample, EQ them, and it can sound a lot cleaner then lots of shit layered and layered. Try layering a clap over the snare tho for added snap!
 
Russla-DJ said:
Best tip i learnt was to Bus out all the kicks and snares to an Aux, literally change the output to the Bus not send, then wack a decent limiter/compressor to that track which then effectively blends them all together and gives you full control of the overall output. Make sure you don't bus out the hats and cymbals to this one, make a separate Aux for these other wise it'll sound shit!

---------- Post added at 13:53 ---------- Previous post was at 13:50 ----------

Oh and always start with a good quality sample first as Kripsy said don't use a combination of shit samples cos its a waste of time. Imo you should be just to use 1 main kick and 1 main snare sample, EQ them, and it can sound a lot cleaner then lots of shit layered and layered. Try layering a clap over the snare tho for added snap!
Click to expand...

i agree 100% with this (but i use 2-3 snares)

---------- Post added at 19:18 ---------- Previous post was at 19:17 ----------

to put a better point on it...

the above seems to be absolutely crucial information.
 
Basically all you need is a really punchy base snare layered with a clicky real snare over the top.

Base snare usually has a peak at around 200hz or below, and a bit of a snap at around 1000hz and is mono.

Real snare just fills out the missing frequencies and adds a bit of stereo....

to get that real thump, you need to get the base snare really tight. I use combination of light compression and slight boosting of the areas i like, rendering to wav and then sending it through that chain over and over.

And if the breaks which you are using get in the way of the kick and snare (muddy it up) bit of side chain compression can do alot
 
Try layering a clap over the snare tho for added snap![/QUOTE said:
i find that cuting the snare out of your break/main break, and HP it abit and layering it with your main snare gives the snare a nice high end and adds a certain blend the the drums, obviously dpeneds what break your using. also HP'd snare samples with a good high frequency content can have a similar effect too! or both even. for snap however i find compressing your single one shot can really help. i ususaly use settings like Attack:25ms Release :5-10ms. input gain were ever. and then play with the threshold til it snaps like fuck! plus whats been said about busing. kick, snare and break(s) to one bus. all percusion (sept hats or cymbols) to another, the usualy just bus the hats n cymbols together to save me puting a hp on every channle.

Realy you dont need to pay for samples, i get alot of samples out of magazines (half paying for them i know) or ones i find on forums, or just laying around on the net. ive got some cracking samples from some people on this forum and some gems from sample CDs from computer musci magazine!
Click to expand...
 
I send every sample, loop, break, instrument, vocal, VSTi, etc to it's own mixer channel.
Then I'll send all the Kicks to a 'Kicks Mix' channel, all the hats send to a 'Hats Mix' channel and so on for the rest of the drum sounds.
With that done I'll send all the 'Mix' channels to another 'Drums Mix' channel. Now you can apply effects to anything you want at any time.
You could use highpassing on only the kicks, while there is a lowpass going on on the total drum loop (just an example).

So for all the other sounds I'll do exactly the same. A 'Pads Mix' channel, 'Synth Mix' channel and so on.
My basslines are a little different, they're sended to a 'Bass' channel, which is then sended to 4 other mixer channels with low and highpass on them to get 'Bass Sub', 'Bass Low', 'Bass Mid' and 'Bass High'.
Then finally you send those 4 to a 'Bass Mix' channel to add the finishing touches.

Hope this was usefull for some of you. :D
 
IbbyDnB said:
Realy you dont need to pay for samples, i get alot of samples out of magazines (half paying for them i know) or ones i find on forums, or just laying around on the net. ive got some cracking samples from some people on this forum and some gems from sample CDs from computer musci magazine!
Click to expand...

haha i thought i was the only one that used computer music magazine samples
the dnb 2010 ones are lengg
 
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